“Condemn Members’ Diatribes as Violation of Latin American Parliament Directive against Antisemitism”

Buenos Aires, January 4, 2012

In a letter to Senator Guido Girardi Lavin and Congressman Patricio Melero Abaroa, Presidents of the respective Chambers of the Chilean Congress, the Simon Wiesenthal Center protested incitement to anti-Semitism by two of its members following the arrest of Israeli tourist, Rotem Singer, who stands accused of starting a wildfire in the southern Patagonian forest region of Torres del Paine.

Congressman Fuad Chahin announced via Twitter: “I bet that the Israeli ‘tourist’ who caused the blaze is one of those sent by his government after killing Palestinian children”. Senator Eugenio Tuma added that “it is not normal that the Israeli government send a military team to tour Patagonia. The free transit of tourists is completely different from having a State financing and organizing its former soldiers”.

“These unfounded charges are patently aimed at Jews in general and are redolent of 'The Andean Plan’ – the Latin version of the notorious ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ conspiracy forgery. The antisemitic rhetoric of Chahin and Tuma abuses an ecological catastrophe as a vector for hate. They violate a Directive against Antisemitism submitted by the Wiesenthal Center and adopted on 2 December 2011 by the PARLATINO (Latin American Parliament) as model legislation for the continent,” stated Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations of the Wiesenthal Center.

“In September 2011, Chile hosted the Americas’ Prepcom for the Rio+20 environmental summit. Our Center successfully worked to keep the agenda on focus. We regret that it has now been polluted with racist statements. We offer our Center’s expertise for the promotion of anti-discrimination legislation in Chile,” added Sergio Widder, Director for Latin America.

Samuels and Widder urged the Congress Presidents “to publicly condemn the defamatory remarks by their Members and adopt the PARLATINO Declaration against Antisemitism at the national level.”

For further information, contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at +336 09770158 or Sergio Widder at +54911 4425-1306, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400.000 members. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament.